Pimps go hi-tech

2003-06-03 08:00

Hong Kong - Pimps in Hong Kong are luring customers by sending hi-tech digital images of prostitutes to potential clients over their cellphones, a news report said on Tuesday.

The hustlers are exploiting the latest cellphone technology to beam lurid photographs of vice girls onto the latest colour-screen handsets, according to the South China Morning Post.

Police are investigating the phenomenon and have been checking the cellphones of pimps arrested in raids in the city's red light districts, according to the newspaper.

No one has so far been arrested for soliciting by cellphone, however.

A police source quoted by the newspaper said: "The first to maximise the technology are the pimps in the Mongkok (red light) area. Before they make the deal they show the client a photo preview on the cellphone."

Hong Kong residents have one of the highest rates of cellphone ownership in the world with more than eight out of 10 of the territory's 6.8 million population owning a handset.

New-style phones with colour screens are increasingly popular in the gadget-hungry city. - Sapa-DPA

- SAPA